Crude Oil Inventory Soars by 10 Million Barrels

Total gasoline inventories increased by 600,000 barrels last week and remain well above the upper limit of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the EIA’s measure of consumption) averaged 9 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, up by 8.7% compared with the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories decreased by 3.3 million barrels last week and remain in the lower half of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged 3.9 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 12.5% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged 4.8 million barrels a day last week, about 300,000 barrels a day less than the prior week’s production.

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Wednesday evening the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories rose by 5.7 million barrels in the week ending January 16. For the same period, analysts had estimated an increase of 2.7 million barrels in crude inventories, a rise of 800,000 barrels in gasoline stockpiles, and an increase of 300,000 barrels in distillate supplies.

Before the EIA report, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for February delivery was trading down about 1.5% at around $47.05 a barrel Thursday morning. The WTI price slipped to around $46.60 (down about 2.7% for the day) immediately after the report was released. The 52-week range on WTI futures is $44.78 to $100.52.

For the past week, crude imports averaged 7.2 million barrels a day, down by 274,000 barrels a day compared with the previous week. Refineries were running at 85.5% of capacity, with daily input of 14.9 million barrels a day, about 984,000 barrels a day below the previous week’s average.

The sharp rises in inventories of crude oil, gasoline and distillates virtually guarantee that prices have nowhere to go but down. Refinery utilization was down again last week as the posted price for WTI crude ended the week at $44.75. The price had dropped to $42.25 as of Tuesday morning.

According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $2.041, down from $2.085 a week ago and from $2.394 a month ago. Last year a gallon of regular cost $3.283 on average in the United States. The EIA estimated last week that regular gas will cost an average of $2.33 a gallon in 2015, rising to $2.72 in 2016.

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Here is a look at how share prices for two exchange traded funds reacted to the latest report.

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) traded down about 2.6%, at $17.34 in a 52-week range of $17.10 to $39.44.

The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (NYSEMKT: OIH) traded down about 0.7%, at $33.75 in a 52-week range of $31.63 to $58.01.